What makes a happy life???

According to an Eastern tale, a king, who failed to find happiness, sought the advice of his courtiers. The wise ones advised him to wear the shirt of happy man. So, soldiers were sent all over the country to fetch a happy man's shirt. Though the men met many people who had shirts, none of these people was happy. The story concludes that, finally when they managed to find a happy man, it turned out that he had no shirt. The tale, of course is not meant to be taken literally; yet the sagacity it implies is significant.

It is hard to decide what makes a happy life, for we cannot agree on a definition of happiness that is acceptable to all. One man's idea of a happy life will be entirely different from another man's and what a third man considers to be a happy life may be accpetable neither to the first nor to second. The attempt to decide what a happy life is reminds me of the five blind men who tried to find the shape of an elephant.

The truth is that, as beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder, happiness is a state of the mind which depends entirely on the individual concerned.